Following his graduation in Medicine at the University of Adelaide, Dr. Brand took up medical appointments in Papua/New Guinea, and was Medical Superintendent of the Port Moresby General Hospital from 1961 until 1963, when he was appointed Medical Superintendent of The Geelong Hospital. In May 1970, he became Executive Director of the Preston and Northcote Community Hospital (PANCH). He was a member of the Board of Management of PANCH from 1980-95. In 1978 he was seconded to restructure the Queen Victoria Medical Centre, and in 1980-81 spent 12 months on secondment to the Health Commission of Victoria. In 1995 he was appointed Group Director of Clinical Services and Deputy Chief Executive Officer of the North Eastern Health Care Network, which position he held until he retired in 1998. Since then he has been Medical Adviser at The Northern Hospital at Epping, Victoria.

He became a Fellow of the Australian College of Health Service Executives in 1966, and was a member of the Victorian State Council of that College for 17 years, being President in 1971 and 1988. He was a member of the Federal Council of the College for 15 years, (President in 1991/2) and Chairman of the Education and Examination Committee from 1973-79 and 1987-91. He was awarded the Gold Medal of the College in 1993, and was made a Life Member in 1998.

Dr Brand was a Foundation Fellow and Signatory of the Royal Australian College of Medical Administrators, and was a member of the Board of Censors and a tutor and examiner for the College from 1968 to 1973. He has also been a member and Chairman of the Victorian State Committee of the College.

In recognition of his work as a tutor and examiner, Dr. Brand was made an Honorary Fellow of the Society of Hospital Pharmacists of Australia in 1966. He was a member of the Board of Censors of the Society from 1965 to 1998 (Chairman from 1983). In 1987 Dr. Brand was elected to Honorary Membership in recognition of his work in education for the Society, and in 1999 was the first non-pharmacist to receive the Society’s highest honour, the Fred J Boyd Award. Dr Brand is a Fellow of the Australian Society of Certified Practising Accountants, and has published some 50 papers on various administrative topics, as well as being very involved in teaching in the health field.

Dr. Brand was Chairman of the Victorian Hospitals Association from 1987-91, and a member of the Board of Directors and the Division 1 Council from 1974 to 1995. He was Chairman of the Victorian Hospitals' Industrial Council for eight years, and of V.H.A.'s Nursing Advisory Committee. In addition, he was Deputy Chairman of the Council of the Cairnmillar Institute in Melbourne (from 1972-85).

Dr. Brand was Chairman of the Committee of Management of the Bundoora Extended Care Centre from 1987-90 (Treasurer from 1971 to 1995), and in 1992 the Ian Brand Nursing Home was opened, named in recognition of his work for the Centre. In 1981 he was appointed Administrator of the Fairfield Hospital in Melbourne, and for 14 months following his restructuring of this hospital he was, in effect, the Board of Management of the hospital. Following this he was elected Chairman of the Board of Management of the hospital from 1982 to 1984, and was Chairman of the Finance Committee until the closure of the Hospital in 1995.

In September 1981, he was invited to report to the Tasmanian Government on the Mersey General Hospital, and his report was tabled in the Tasmanian Parliament in November 1981. He has carried out numerous hospital investigations in Victoria, New South Wales, and South Australia, and was a surveyor for the Australian Council on Hospital Standards from the inception of the program in 1975 until 1982.

He was Chairman of the Working Party responsible for drawing up the program for delineation of clinical privileges in Victorian hospitals, and has served on many Committees in Victoria, including Health Commission Committees on paediatric services and nursing manpower needs. He was Chairman of the Working Party which reviewed the Victorian School Medical Service in 1983.

In 1983, he was a member of the Sax Committee which enquired into hospital services in South Australia, and was Project Director for the Economic & Budget Review Committee of the Victorian Parliament in that Committee's hospital and health enquiries.

In 1984/85 he was appointed Chairman of the Review Committee of the Repatriation Hospital System in Australia for the Australian Government.

In 1985 he was appointed Chairman of the Course Development Committee, Graduate Diploma and Masters Degree in Health Services Administration of the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology, and has been a member of course development and advisory committees of tertiary institutions in the health field.

In 1986 he was appointed a member of the Victorian Advisory Committee, School of Health Administration, University of New South Wales.

In February 1986, he was appointed as a member of the Review of the Teaching Hospitals Financial Performance for New South Wales major teaching hospitals, and in 1991 he was Chairman of the Review of the Victorian Health Care System.
In 1986 he became a member of the Victorian Drug Usage Advisory Committee, reporting directly to the Minister of Health.

In 1987 he was a member of the Day Procedure Centre Task Force, a Committee set up to assess the current demand and future need for day procedure facilities in Victoria. From 1990-98 he was Chairman of the Ministerial Consultative Council on Emergency and Critical Care Services in Victoria.

In 1991 at the request of the Chinese Minister of Health he advised on the setting up of a post-graduate health management training program in Nanjing, the capital of Jiangsu Province in China, which by 2002 had over 1,000 graduates, and in 1994 was made Australia’s first honorary citizen of that Province. He is an honorary fellow of the Beijing Society of Hospital Management, and was the first foreigner to present a paper at the quadrennial meeting of the Chinese Society of Hospital Management in 1994.

In 1983 he was honoured by the award of Membership of the Order of Australia in the Australia Day Honours for services to medical administration, and in 2002 he received the Centennial Medal. In 1998 he was made an Adjunct Professor at LaTrobe University, and in 1999 Adjunct Professor at the Jiangsu Medical Staff University in Nanjing, China.

By way of recreation, he is interested in philately, painting, music criticism and musicology, and the collection and propagation of plants, particularly roses, grevilleas, and cymbidium orchids.